5 things I wish I knew after scoring 60% in Class XII

Back in 2010, I completed my Class XII from a remote area of Uttar Pradesh. I will not bother to tell you about my school. It was not famous. Period. But that’s the thing about schools right, it doesn’t have to be famous or cool as long as it is yours? Well, that’s not what I am here to talk about. As I was anxiously waiting for results of long list of exams which went something like this.
• Boards
• IIT JEE
• AIEEE
• UPSEE
• BITSAT
• VITEEE
I was never a bad student but I wasn’t the best either. In fact, I was one of the ‘Oh-he’s-bright-but-he-doesn’t-work-hard’ type and so I was somewhat sure that there was one seat somewhere in some college with my name on it and there was.
It’s been 7 years now. As I sit in with my laptop searching ‘relevant’ content for Collegedunia.com where I work, I find internet stuffed with news about Class XII Results, Analysis, Career opportunities, counselling and what not. It makes me wonder, do they (students) realize what is good because clearly, I didn’t. Here’s shout out to all my 12thers out there of the ten things I wish I knew while I was about to take that अंतिम पग out of school.

Engineering is not always cool

I know you know. I did too. I also got the signals just like you might be getting from your seniors, from your elder brothers or sisters. I don’t really understand the concept of engineering industry that we have in our country and are they secretly funding our parents to send us off to engineering colleges. Well, parents are not always to blame which was my case. Analyze hardly, it could be yours too.

Marks do matter

Don’t think otherwise. It’d be lying to yourself. Yes, I understand it will not matter as much 5-6 years down the life. But for your immediate future which includes you getting admitted in a college, your marks will play a big role. On other hand, it doesn’t mean that your life is over if you couldn’t score well.
I scored 90% in my 10th grade, 61% in 12th and 59% in Graduation. I applied for Indian Armed Forces and as I sat for penultimate Interview round, it all came back to haunt me when the interviewer asked me the reason. I knew why my score graph went down but I could not explain it to him. Obviously, I did not get recommended but now I work as a writer for a startup. It’s cool and I like writing. The point I am trying to make is, if I had good grades in my 12th there would have been some other questions but not that. I would have got recommended I guess, if I had explained him better but life is as it is. You will eventually land up where you want and you will like it but only if you don’t quit.

Only planned ideas work

Fun in life is somewhat over the edge now. Whatever happens to your life, from this point onwards, is officially your own responsibility. You can’t go crying over blaming on your parents like you did till now. Its time you take charge of your life and the first step towards it is to know your goal and make plans for it. But it doesn’t just there- Working in a corporate world I found out that creating a sheet is the easiest job while maintaining it is the hardest. Irony of Life. As important making plans are, working as per them is as much important.
Don’t be confused! To scare you about life is not at all in my priority list. I am just giving you heads up that I wish somebody had given me when I was your age. So Plan, Perspire and Perfect!

Time flies and people too

As I mentioned earlier, you are now entering one of the most crucial phase of life and trust me when tell you this, 4 years from now you will be totally different from what you are now and that would be for good. Your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideologies will be revamped and you will have broader, clearer and cleaner point of view and It all begins right now.
Life is not just about the degrees you have in your folder. Your destination does not only depend upon the subjects you study in college. It gets affected by every little decision you make in life and that includes what you do in your free time. There’s three ways to spend your free time.
• Work it
• Live it
• Kill it
When you spend your free time working around your primary aim, using ways to strengthen your abilities practicing for some skills like watching videos about how to learn guitar or what was here before civilization happened. That’s how you work your free time. At times when you spend your free time do something you love the most like reading your favorite novel, completing that unfinished poem or going out for a walk, that how you live your free time. Many often, we don’t feel good about working or reading or going out for a walk so you like to kill it and you sleep or you scroll Facebook or do nothing and just lie down. Well, as important working your time is, living it and killing are also as important. Just Don’t kill it always. 2 out of 3 times you are free, try to work or live it.

Parents are not always the enemies

Yeah they aren’t. They probably might not understand you and you might not completely understand their intentions at times but all those two innocent souls want is your life to be easier than theirs. They could seem contrasting what they taught you in your childhood and that’s when you should realize you have officially grown up in their eyes. Well, But not always.
Your thought process is never going to sync with parents and you will always have different perspective to life and that is good. You need to acknowledge it and convey your parents the same.